Samsung Is The Only Android Manufacturer That Matters Now

No surprise: Google's Android
mobile operating system continues to dominate, hitting 70 percent
of the market in the fourth quarter.

Apple's iOS was at 21 percent, up from 14.5 percent in the third
quarter. (That shows the effect of the iPhone
5).

But this note struck us:

Samsung
was the biggest contributor to Android's success, amassing 42.0%
of all Android smartphone shipments during the year. Following
Samsung was a long list of vendors with single digit market
share, and an even longer list of vendors with market share less
than one percent.

So basically, any individual Android maker—including Google's own
Motorola
Mobility—could close up shop and not make a significant dent in
Android's share.

That puts Google in
a very precarious position. On the one hand, the fact that
there's a large, profitable manufacturer making lots of Android
phones is good for Google.

On the other, the fact that only one manufacturer is capturing
most of the share (and pretty much all of the profit) in the
Android hardware business is bad for Google, since it limits
Google's leverage.